Cor Amadeo

 The feeling of being abandoned for some trespass is not easy to live with, or, frankly to get rid of. But it is a feelings I have consented to live with for the sake of the Lord because it pleases Him.

The stakes are too grave to refuse. Trouble is, it is difficult to live with so much sadness, confusion and chaos, and the destruction and violence of wars can only be ground down by something equally as hard. 

In that regard, for transgressors who have done substantial destruction because he feels he is entitled, hope is almost dead of ever seeing life spring up again in such a hostile environment. When it gets too much, He gets to taste the fullness of such desolation. But in the voyage, it is impossible to pass by places where all His love has been so profligately splashed across the landscape. So on one hand, there is the starkest beauty in desolation and the suffering of abandoment, but on the other hand, to be in that moment when my feet will tread no farther no matter what I try to will. Seeing me and what has happened to me, He is not distant, and if He did not consent to mitigate the darkness I could not go on in this life.

As a consequence, He reaches down to me where I am laid out on the ground and lifts me up to be with Him at His side. He puts His finger in my side, and asks me to put my finger into His side because He cannot bear to be without the love He finds, and bathed in the crimson of His sacrifice, I am filled with bliss and tears wash my face, as He helps me to my feet when He sees I am ready.

My ey is upon you, to guard your step and
to reach out through your darkness to give you light.

Precision

A leaf leached out its tanin into the cement and
retained an image of the leaf in the cement.

The whole act was precise. Without precision, the bomb would not have exploded as designed.

Pictures show rubble where there had been buildings housing people,  but no people, the people were vaporized. No one in the youtube videos I have watched, about Hiroshima and Nagasaki nor even Trinity itself, mention EMP. It undobtedly existed, but no one noted the electromagnetic pulse that resulted from the release of nuclear force. Afterwards, the Japanese commanders noted total silence where there was usually all kinds of chatter by military personnel performing their duties, and civil authorities noted the abscence of chatter on radios from all over the region that usually existed. The people who would have made all the chatter did not transmit anyting - they no longer physically existed.

The largest ever nuclear detonation was made by Russia, called Tsar Bomba. It was so powerful, that it caused disruption of radio and electronic devices instantaneously. It proved to be too powerful, destroying too much to be usuable.

In some movies describing a nuclear attack, the people at ground zero beneath the thermonuclear explosion hear an eerie ringing sound and then there is silence. Any electronic device not sheilded from the electromagnetic pulse was destroyed by an electrical pulse that surges through electronic circuits, exploding each of them and rendering them useless.

That is why a place called Cheyenne Mountain was constructed inside a mountain in Colorado, so the electronic devices inside the bunker would be sheilded sufficiently from the power of the electronic wave. Government could go on functioning and armed forces could function to launch our own nuclear weapons at enemies far away.

The use of nuclear weapons would be an act of fury and anger of no use, because the land beneath a nuclear explosion would be vaporized and disintegrated, leaving rubble where pressure waves knocked down walls and incinerating everything in them.

The use of nuclear weapons defeats any human planning because the envisonment is made so toxic with radiation, that nobody could survive there, so that the primordial impulse to lay waste enemies is defeated itslelf.

Anyone not vaporised would be horribly burnt and already suffering from the exposure to nuclear radiation, a radiation that would remain potent and lethal for centuries. No enemy invader would gain anything because it would all remain deadly, in effect, forever. People in the Cheyenne Mountain complex might survive safe from EMP and atomic radiation, but 

there would be little rational impetus to launch nuclear weapons because the first wave had already reduced the world to a pit of death. The enemy would be dead, the civilian  population would be dead, and all human creations would be destroyed forever. Even something as simple as ordinary rainfall would be rendered deadly by radiation and the pollution of things burned into dust.

We do not have the right to ask to be spared if we do not commend ourselves to God and to Mary, the Mother of God, when they have begged us already to protect and defend us. We are so easilly overcome by our weaknesses that we are essentially defenseless. Thus, it would be a furtherance of insanity to turn away from God as if He had punished us by letting us blow ourseflves up.

The truth is, that we already can commit suicide in many ways; overating the wrong foods, drinking toxic beverages such as alcohol, ignoring medical warning signs, and indulging in things against which we have been warned, such a sexual promiscuity and indulgence. You can have a pretty good time partying and ignoring it all. But such things blind us to the truth that indulgence distances us from God who could sheild us if we asked Him. 

It is time to do good things, think good thoughts and offer God our love because He promises to help us and defend us from the evil intentions of others we will never meet.

I warn you, that the good we do will be seen and the good we do will bless us with untold happiness, if only we can forgo the things of this life which bind  us so. Only God offers us the release from that bondage to bring us life. The world only knows and only sees what interests evil. Where evil reigns, everyone must support evil. In this world there are those who engage in things that threaten life altogether. The human beings who adhere to the supremacy of sin, feel they are  safe from the consequnces of their wrong doing. But God will reveal everything, and the new universe He will create will be for those who love God and one another. No one else.

Cause

 

Cause for Concern

"My Jesus I Trust in You". 

Given the upheavals in political circles at the moment, this prayer is relevant for every human being on the planet right now. 

If people do not call on Jesus and Mary for protection and for an immediate increase in faith and love, it may be very difficult ot impossible to be in a right relationship with Him to ensure salvation.

Let me therefore point out that our future and the future of other human beings is dependant on our relationship to Jesus, in our hearts and in our actions in life rightnow.

All my life I, like millions of others, have lived  under the sword of nuclear war in which millions might be vaporised as were those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki  in world war two.

If there is no one else you love, let it be Jesus whom you love and to whom you turn with affection, putting aside all others in your heart so that there is nothing else but Jesus.

It requires nothing more than an expression of our love for Him, independant of our feelings. Do not let feelings stand in the way of a closer relationship with Jesus.

May God bless us all, protect us, and draw us close to Him.

We are one.

Considerations of an intercessing person

The Mother of God does not grow tired
of holding us close to Her Heartor of
leading us closee to Her Son, Jesus.

I say the Rosary every day. But I am a contemplative, so it makes a difference. I don't have the deep absorbtion in the presence of Jesus I had when I was younger, for reasons that were well-founded by the Lord, but lately I have felt closer than I have for many years.

It is not coincidental that I should encounter the Lord in my prayers, nor is it coincidental that when i have felt the desire to share in His passion, I have felt Him closer to me.

A contemplative encounters deep peace and love for the Lord of an intense nature. It is purely a gift, neither owed nor deserved, but it binds the person closer to Christ, enabling a contemplative person to pray with more ease. 

Particularly when a contemplative prays while offering himself to Jesus in an intense way, he is delighted to sit in quiet with a stilled heart, in which to enjoy the presence of Him who draws people to Himself. The tenderness and joy of animated, living joy causes one to love Jesus in a most pure way, undistracted and at rest in his soul. It ought not to be any surprise, given how much He loves us, and given the intensity of gratitude and love present in the passion, it ought not to be a surprise when a love of His passion impresses itself intensely on a soul that would rather spend his time with God than any beloved person or animal.

Most particulalrly, when a person loves the Lord unselfishly and with singular devotion, He reveals Himself quite freely, and one's prayers might be directed to others whom He calls to mind. If the soul follows the prompts of the Lord and prays for a certain favor to be granted, one might find himseld "sunk" deep into Him, aware of His person and His divinity in a deep way.

The prayer of the contemplative intercessor may be dry as a desert, with mind and soul united in wishing to love Him and draw close to him. Following the prompts of the Spirit to include certain groups of people in his prayers is providential. Then prayers for healing are considered by the Lord with more reslish, and in some cases the person might blaze with a genuine desire to encounter the Lord's passion. If the person yeilds, he may encounter discomfort or even greater things than that.

The world is in distinct need ot the Lord now, that brothers are instigated against brothers so that anger and violence or even war might break out. The world needs to experience the tenderness of the Lord's love, and in the place where a brother or sister yeild themselves in love to Jesus and are consumed by His love encounter His suffering passion, prayers may have strength enough overcome the anger and the violence and restore brothers to be at peace with one another.

For this reason, the Mother of God urges all to pray the Rosary. She is most capable of helping us with such matters, and stands beside the person who suffers, particulalry those whose hearts are particulalry loving and attentive to the passion of Jesus. For this reason, She asks us to say the Rosary. She is particulalrly capable of understanding how people and nations got where they are, beset by worries about finances and sufferings, particulalry those who sufferings are in the heart and involve others who have hurt and injured us.

When I pray the Rosary, I feel His peace, and often then am drawn into His rest and quiet, and lose myself in Him. I have found it easier to pray cotemplatively when saying the Rosary if I close my eyes to allow me to conentrate on Jesus and less of myself of my concerns. This can be a problem if the beads and links of the Rosary's chains are small, because one needs a cue to use to know when to say the various prayers of the Rosary.

I used to fall asleep in the middle of the Rosary, but if the rosary I am using to pray the Rosary does not differentiate the beads, then it can be difficult. The beads need to be large enough, and the first bead at the start of a new decade needs to be distant enough from the next bead so that it is not necessary to open my eyes and check whether the bead indicates a new prayer or not.

Keeping my eyes shut allows me to avoid distractions so I may concentrate on the prayers.

Someone who says the Rosary and brings his intentions to the Lord and to Mary and strives to be attentive to them will receive graces. In situations where healing is necessary, it is very helpful to be able to demonstrate one's love of Jesus and Mary by focusing on being loving and attentive. The world is full of distractions and we must attend to some as it is important for fulfilling our duties to other people. Jesus and Mary will especially love anyone who tries in their own way to  seek to be there for them.

If one prays, he is liable to be drawn closer to the Lord, and if one makes a habit of yeilding to the prompting of the Lord, it is quite possible one might be invited to come higher by the Lord. A genuine humility draws the Lord close so He makes us aware of Himself. Fasting and self denial dispose one to the Lord and to receive His favors, some of which might be extraordinary indeed, especially if one wishes to lavish a fresh love on others who have asked us to pray. Pleading for what someone else needs can bring a great deal of love into the picture. A person who prays contemplatively and in intercession for a person might lead to very great things indeed. 

The world needs the Lord in order to be a human being; those who give up praying and cease making any effort to pray may just find their lives empty all of a sudden, and bitter and cold. To get out of such a place requires prayer, but it can be an awful slog, so that it helps to pray for sweetness of the Lord to keep our hearts open to Him. 

Many sufferings accompany some people as a result. That suffering might be the occasion for a arid bitter to receive the gift of His love to dispell bitterness and despair.

When you say the Rosary, always include those in your prayers who have most need of His mercy and those most in need of His mercy so that they do die in despair but fervent with desire for the Lord and His merciful touch.

Keep in mind that the Mother of God is powerful in providing what She knows we need and that She wishes to fulfill us so that we may come to the moment of ultimate closeness to Jesus and His Mother. 

Urquelle

Change is a constant in life. When it arises suddenly and unbidden, it may destroy. When it is easy to change rules and  laws and no one can object, then we are in danger. This is especially troubling when you cannot object or change something. The human will is so important, that Jesus allowed Himself to be be beaten, ridiculed, intimidated and nailed to a cross to await the lance that opened His side.

When there is no recourse to change, and it becomes permanent, and cannot be altered, then something dies. Jesus died in order to change the immutable. Without Jesus, without His life and death, we would have no guide no hope and peace is laid waste. If there can be no objection, that does not automatically preclude change. Without the possibility of objection, or hope of change, the will is relegated to nothingness, and the human in us dies. Change has always been presaged by objection.

I have no means of getting to Mass. That needs to change, but no amount of prayer has changed that. Pain has diminished, but the pain in my side asserts itself when I am least expecting it. It hurts just enough to be reminded of Jesus, crucified. That I hurt and am reminded is something that does not change.

I am not shut-in, but that does not mean that anyone will come along to bring me to Mass or bring the Mass to me, not even the Eucharist. That is not extraordinary, because the Sacrment of Penance is denied me also, and no amount of papal decrees will change that. No priest should live as I did, but I am not a priest so it does not matter what the pope says about celibacy and the way priests must live. One can snap their fingers, but it will change nothing. And that is dangerous. 

I fear the only thing that is changing is that there is greater opportunity to ignore things; rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic did not save anyone aboard her - she went down to the bottom of the ocean, and those who had no place on the boats died in the freezing cold water. 

God must break the unbreakable for change to take place. His death must be stronger than the invasion of Ukraine, and more powerful than the russian army trying to take what is not theirs by force, killing and destroying things indiscrimantely, as if the victims of their slefihness were meaningless. 

The thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagsaki were not meaningless. The shadows that were left behind by the flash of light that vaporised thousands cannot be recalled, and the dead who were vaporised cannot be brought back.

Unless we believe in the passion of Christ, there can be no peace, and the kindness of those who love God and one another will be insufficient to change the course of history. But how can we overcome our lack of empathy and our exert out love to the extent that others might be protected unless the passion touches some part of us? It may be arrogant to say, but I can offer myself to feel and experience what no one else may want to feel or experience.

The priest in the parish house will suffer loneliness unless others awaken to the need to provide our loving kindness for their needs. Unless people know, they won't change anything. The pope himself will not feel it either unless it is allowed to become a part of his life experience. You cannot minister to others unless you can feel their pain in your own heart and your own side which awakens the awareness of the lance in His side in YOUR OWN body. That cannot be legislated in the Vatican or the parish house. It must take place in our own hearts and our own actions.

Do not abandon one another. Do not use indifference to relegate others to an instituionalised loneliness. Married or unmarried, a lonely man may feel only cold emptiness unless he is allowed to experience the warmth and happiness of others. Service cannot provide for human kindness by itself. Yet, it remains true, that the death of Christ was empty, lonely and frightening. Those who loved Him were experienced by Him. Our calling must be to the inclusion of the priest into our life as members of a family. That is nothing new, though the ennunciation of that need may be something new because someone recognized it was so.

Intercession

A man of such joy in the midst of such sufferings

as he endured is a treasure for us all. Let us ask him

for what we need.

To intercede is to stand in someone's place to take their punishment upon themselves so that the person is free of condemnation. Jesus is the ultimate Intercessor who stands in the place of ourselves to receive their punishment instead of them.

Jesus took upon Himself the death we incurred by sin so we may walk free of the sin and the punishment incurred by us for our sin,

So, one is really asking a lot when they come up to someone and ask them to intercede for somone so as to take on their illness, misfortune or suffering. If you know someone who would do so immediately and without question, you have met a prescious person worth your life.

To be so close to Jesus as to be permitted to ask to take someone's sickness or suffering to themselves as if it were their right to ask speaks of an intimacy of unspeakable quality. 

The usual situtation is that a person asks Jesus to heal someone for whom they were asked to pray. To ask someone to intercede is to ask them to receive the  suffering or pain with the expectation that the afflicted person will be free of whatever disease or suffering for which they were asked to pray.

It is not the usual case that we are talking about, when we speak of intercession. Such a condition might be that a person suffers some pain or misery for a time in exchange for a recovery from some illness or condition of deprivation. 

One intercessor who comes to mind is Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the Capuchin frier who received the Stigmata so he could suffer in Christ's place for them to receive well-being and good fortune. He did this without asking anything for the favor. Padre Pio suffered the passion of Jesus every day for fifty years before the stimata were removed, and he died afterward. Being a priest, he participated in the passion of Jesus which the Mass commemorates, and during his Mass, he endured the passion of Jesus to the point of not only bleeding as if freshly crucified, but to the point of suffering all of the pain that accompanied the passion. He obtained the forgiveness of people's sins through his confessional. The  person sometimes was accompanied by actual healing of the problem. 

When we ask someone to intercede, we need to keep in mind what we are asking. The condition of the soul of Padre Pio was such that he was entrusted with particpation in the passion by suffering the wounds inflicted on Jesus by crucifixion after he had asked to suffer the stigmata invisibly, and the Lord entrusted His passion to Padre Pio in such a way that the stigmata were imposed visibly, which is to say, he got more than he bargained for.

Padre Pio could see the suffering of Jesus on the cross so that he endured the suffering of Jesus rejected and unloved in addition to the agony of nails having been driven in with a hammer in his hands, feet and side, so that he bled daily. 

Having suffered thus for fifty years, Padre Pio died. His miracles still occur for people who have asked for healing or rhe remediation of troubles and problems.

It hurts to be ignored and abandoned. The elderly suffer it each day, all day, their sufferings interrupted only by sleep, which comes grudgingly and the loneliness remains unabated as long as they are awake.

It need not be loneliness that afflicts a man, but the opportunity exists to obtain favors from the Lord as we suffer our old age. The pains may be intermittent so that one thing or another may cause pain that is interrupted hour by hour and day by day. An old person who smiles is giving you a gift of pure love, and when someone does ask you to intercede for them, you might offer to suffer for the elderly in their daily pains. Often, having suffered invisibly, they are afflicted with greater sufferings, and finally death itself.

In the case of Jesus, as like Padre Pio, His suffering on the cross ended and He returned to His Father, receiving His only Son and His obedient endurance of the unendurable for the sake of love alone. This should inspire confidencee in Jesus during the day when all sorts of afflctions visit us and we find ourselves in a continuing confition of miserable suffering.

Jesus was innocent, having never committed a sin. When Padre Pio offered himself to suffer the passion invisibly, he was offering his virginity and holiness as well, his whole self. Stigmatised. he offered his whole self, submitting his all to Jesus in thanksgiving for the innocent and sinless sacrifice of his stigmata for the needs of the world of human beings he might never meet. He gifted himself to Jesus and Jesus accepted the relief of some of His pain, that He was able to receive by Padre Pio's selfless act of itnercession.

He may have seen what people wondered about in an age when terrors and horrors present themselves in exchange for the adulation of unrepentant sinners, who fail to see the goodness of Christ and the love of Jesus.

If we ahve sinned, we need to ask Jesus to forgive us so we will be able to particiapte in His salvation and intercession. The exposure of the holiness committed by so many daily is a source of light and comfort in a world of terror and sorrow.

Wonderfully

 The only chance you will get of making a difference is if you are there. A word at the right moment can carry a great deal of weight. Better yet, the statement you make by always being there is immense.

The Lord chooses to feel like us, and to be as vulnerable as we are. We might get hurt, we might be wounded, we might feel as if a wall of stone has fallen on us, but if you still your thoughts and be quiet, He will speak, and you will be made wonderfully.

Together

 Terrible things are waiting to happen, and the ONLY way the United States will survive is if everyone pulls the oars together. If you floudner around in political games, your suffering will be ten times worse. in addition, nations that have need of assistance won't get it because we will have been flattened by disasters and can't help. Let that sink in. Pray for one another. Help one another. Speak a word of encouragement and kindness and forget political garbage. When the country has been shaken down, only those who look out for one another will have any slightest aid or comfort. Jesus receives assistance from the prayers and kindneesses of others, and He remembers even the smallest sip of water.

I used to wonder what I did wrong or where mymiseries werre comfing from. I finally realized thatI was being shown how we will all be hurting by being similarlly afflicted in my own life. He clothes, feeds and houses us, so that we are free for serving Him by serving others. The day of gratuities has come and gone. Now is the time to get real. It was real to me when I was allowed to feel the pains of the cross by sharing in them. He saw fit not to make the wounds visible in blood. At least, what little blood there was was limited and my heart spoke out to Him in a vain attempt to comfort Him.

Persistent disasters compounding to create one very immense disaster

Longing

 

There is no  such thing as getting rid of one's own will. One can surrender his will to Him as totally as possible, and trust Him for the little He sees we are still attached to our own will.

For some, that is not difficult, but for others, it can be searing as any surgery without anesthesia.  Still, our mortal nature limits how much pain we can absorb, and nature protects us against excesses. The best we can do is do as He wishes, and trust.

I would wish the mess we have in Washington DC might be transformed complettely by some magic, but what magic can we weild against the kind of evil that prevails? In willing what He wills, we again, can go only so far before our limits have been reached. Fortunately, the fact that Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified means that He is capable of things we cannot imagine.

That we can assist Him with our penaces and acceptance of trials is irrefutable. That is why there are contemplatives and those dwelling in silent solitude.

Pray for each other and for the work of the Lord in each life. The day is coming when we will be able to see, and then we will rejoice.

Attitude

 

the consolation of purgatory

How do you love yourself when you are crucified? You must, because His love will never cease to make you more one with Him through the pain itself. The key to the heart of those you seem unable to reach with the touch of His kindness is directly related to depths of His crucified pain.

Do not scrap the spirituality you grew up with for something new and shiney. There are lots of Youtube videos making statements about how people  should pray and how they should do the most innocuous things these days.

A humble attitude is your most important attribute as a human being. Praying to God to help your prayer and attitude is absolutely beyond priceless. How you hold a rosary or your prayer posture is not more important than your attititude.

I humble myself in the dirt at the foot of the cross where I belong because of my sins, and I ask you, Lord, to be made acceptable in all things in my life so I may grasp my salvation and enjoy your loving kindness in spite of my faults.

A lackadaisical attitude IS dangerous; a lack of gratitude and faith will lead you to become disrespectful and lose your all important salvation.

Our very weakness and blindness to spiritual realities can ennervate faith by which we see the unseen and our behavior toward the Almighty will suffer.

At the same time, speak how you feel toward the Lord, with respect, and honor Him as your creator.

Spend the time you have in prayer. God is the one who made you and gave you the time in which you live. Meanwhile, realize that we are blind to spiritual realities, and  we must want to see Him and be aware of Him if we are to have any chance of deporting ourselves with a proper attitude.

The saints went off to hidden places to have solitude in which to speak to Him and to see Him as He is, whether you are gifted with insight or consolations, or not.

Do not despise His gifts, but graciously accept them, acknowledging their Source. If you lack reverence or respect, do not expect gifts from the Lord. The spouse of our souls deserves the most respectful attitude, and if our love is to blossom, we need to make time for Him and we need to listen closely in solitude and silence.

This may mean difficult moments for someone just beginning a life of prayer. But to remember that He was crucified in our place helps immensely. You may expect opposition the more you spend time with the Him instead of yourself and your obssessions. If you truly desire solitude and silence in which to cultivate an appropriate attitude, you must move your heart to be close to Him, listening intently and placing Him in the time He gave you, at His feet and close enough to His Heart to hear His longing for you.

That longing is reflected in reality itself. He will calm the tempests and provide for your most important needs. Don't forget to remember Him, and that He is as close as your next breath, and your next thought. As much as you like the things of the world because you are immsersed in them, you must make an equal amount of time available for Him. Remember you get only this one chance. Do not squander your time on your only fickle obssesions. He who made you can do all things, and transform you to one who is HIs lover, and He will embrace a warm and beating heart.

Wills

 I can't sleep tonight. It is another one  of those nights it won't happen for me.
It is not unusual anymore, and it has been ongoing for a number of years. It concerns the Will of God and my own will. I have been praying for a young boy of eleven years who was suddenly confronted by a form of leukemia. He under went a bone marrow transplant and was pronounced free of the disease. However, it became necessary to undergo another transplant, but unfortunately after having neen irradiated to eliminate his own immune system, he was vulnerable to any pathogen in the environment capable of getting a foot hold in his young body. After the euphoria of hearing that he was free of leukemia, he came down with a virus that has halted most of his progress.

In this moment, the family, and the boy himself, would like to experience a full and complete healing, including the restoration of his sight, which became compromised after being put in a coma  by the doctors; I don't pretend to understand that, but he eventually came out of the coma and seemed to be making great progress toward the desiired recovery until the vrus struck. Now the family is struggling to accept that their son is slipping away, with too many things wrong, and too few things moving in the right direction.

It is precisely this moment that every human being must come to in some way or another. One must do his best to accept God's Will even when it is contrary to every instinct of human existance entirely.

It came for me through the naive desire to bear the Stigmata or wounds of the Lord. I had been told that on a certain day, in a certain place, I would be granted my wish, but I received nothing but the humiliation I deserved. I was humbled and made to understand that I had become too attached to the consolations of the Lord and that I should endure their absence after having enjoyed them very much for many years. It made me as angry as any one can be, but it pointed out that the Will of God is more important than me.

In a way, I did receive them, but it was not in a bloody way, but in a way in which I must daily accept and surrender into His Will in everything, not simpply in them atter of Stigmata. The desire for Stigmata is to desire the passion of Jesus to glorify Him and to suffer with Him, the redemptive passion. One need not be stigmatized in order to be crucified in my life and living 24 hours a day. There is a paiin far deeper and indistinct which accompanies me now. I still miss the sweet consolations I used to enjoy. Occasionally I do briefly encounter the consolations once in a while, but the sweeter and deeper the consolations are, the deeper and more painful my suffering becomes, and I have had some serious moments to live through.

I only offer to suffer for someone else reluctantly, aware that I don't really want to feel the lance in my side, though I have without particularly enjoying the consolations; peace, yes, there was peace, I was not agitated or afraid, but spiritually something transpired I do not understand. Occassionally I feel pain in my hands feet and side, either all together at once, or in my hands or in my side, even my feet.

One of the elements of the passion is pain. I have been subjected to gout and to shingles and I think they were of equivalent intensity to a hole in the hand or side. But the apparent  impending approach of homelessness because of a beurocratic foul-up, and then there was also the spectre of my brother and sister confronting the same thing, and it gutted me to pray so hard. Eventually, things resolved themselves.

In order for someone to encounter the stigmata, one must really desire it completely, otherwise it would be  impossible to receive them. That is why it is possible for someone to experience them, and clearly anything is possible for God. To receive stigmata one must really desire that when Jesus at the same time desires that one should, and receive it as a gift of pure divine love.

Thus it is possible, but one should not trouble themselves about such a thing, and seek protetction for evil lest one become a victim of evil when in the moment of love one become the victim of grief.

I mention the stigmata because of the pain of losing someone small and dear to death. Obviously either complete healing or death are possible at the same time, but one desires a dear one to live and be happy and not be ground down in misery. To relinquish one so loved at such a tender age is an unspeakble sorrow. Part of the sorrow of death is that it is permanent. Saint Padre Pio underwent several events in which he experienced the passion Jesus in his soul and in his body, and it is difficult to know which hurt him more, the physical wounds bleeding and hurting, or the suffering in his soul which participated in the passion also.

It is certain that one can enter into the suffering of others. It is a great charity when one offers to exchange their peace and comfort for someone else's pain and sorrow, but it is not difficult. My advice to seekers of the Lord is not to worry in advance that one might be asked to enter into someone else's suffering, but to be of equal peace;  to suffer in peace or not to suffer. To be of equal happiness opens the Heart of Jesus in a deep way to swallow one up in joy that one chose His love or one's personal comfort.

To be a contemplative is to be one who encounters God, and an intercessor is to be one whom Jesus can call upon to endure for someone else, enduring their misery so they may encounter peace and quiet in the Lord. There have been many who were intercessors and very happy at the same time, and the coexistance of love and pain is a sign of God's pleasure with a person. The gifts of St. Padre Pio rose from his love which was intensified by Jesus because of his love for others. The healing of penitents was due no doubt because of his deep and entire immersion in intercession for them. It was also the reason so many people turned to him for their physical and spiritual needs. St. Therese of Lisieux is another example of being totally surrendered to God and immersed in His Passion. 

Every saint has encountered the moment of confrontation with the Will of God; every one of them gave God their will and went on to complete their lives in peace.

Now he can rest in peace and total health giving happiness as he always did.

Seeing

 

So much to see and say, but only love

is fitting.

Prayer of Victory

I don't have the right to demand anything from God. He has the right to make any demand He wants. We are too often of the opinion that He is mean, cruel and demanding. The cure for that is a long intense look at the cross He died on. 

Punishment goes with sin, but He is forgiving and understands our pain a lot more than we imagine. When He was laying on the cross waiting to be nailed to it, He gave Himself up to all the pain we suffer in life. Some people He loves so much that they become capable of the impossibility we pray for, the miracles, the healings, the comforting and the unsurpassed peace that exists only in Himself united to us in our most absolutley genuine self of us.

The world is largely asleep, oblivious of all He tries to reveal to us. There will be a moment of revelation when the whole world will see the truth of who we are, and who He is. In that moment, the whole human race will be speechless, reduced to silence, stunned by His beauty and the depths of His love. In order to get the attention of every human being, He will reveal Himself such that we cannot ignore or be deceived by anything that could prevent us from seeing the truth. Stunned to silence by what is happening, silence will reign over the earth, and each will receive a correction appropriate to our  need. We need to see Jesus, to see God and to know truth and experience love as He does.

This may be a cataclysmic moment, but those who have known Him will be silent, not stunned to silence like most. Anyone who has never tasted the consolationo f His love, WILL. Ir will coexist in the moment with all that is negative in life and creation, and the love of God which is everywhere.

As such, the moment will be speechless, for such incredibly intense moments  prevent speech, even thought. The time to say "I love You" will come and linger like beautiful sunset. 

All the pain we have suffered from whatever cause will be overcome in the moment, so that His love alone will be the focus of our being. Then we will see and understand that love is everything when there is nothing else but love. 

Saints died to tell Him of their love, and glow with love like a beautiful dawn. We will then be allowed to see for ourselves what it is truly all about.

Respond

 

Mother Teresa responded; will you?

It may seem that God likes certain people a great deal more than others. But if you consider how you like certain people very much and detest others, you might  be able to catch a glimpse of God you never imagined be fore. He loves us all in extraordinary ways, but I think it is true, that just as we form extraordinary relationships wiith some people as opposed to others, it is also true that God created certain people for a  purpose and the friendship that blossomed between God and a human being was a natural consequence of of God's love.

With this is mind, you might meditate on what a holy life is, for a extraordinary person would love extraordinarilly. You might even come to realise that a deep friendship can spring up between ourselves and God if we put forth the effort.

If we  put aside something we cherish deeply for the sake of prayer to express our loving attentiveness to God, He will respond in  kind. There are occasions when we experiencr a trascendant peace suffused with love, it is for a reason. In the meditation about such matters we might begin to connect events with our own attitude toward God. The surest way to experience Him is to show that He is extraordinarilly loved by you.

For some, such moments when peace and love engulf us may be far and few between, but if we love what He shares with us, it is the beginning of a closer realstionship to God, whatever  our life. The truth is, that everyone can have a closer relationship to God if we want it by setting aside  our own concerns and pondering  out role in what He might want of us. 

Some are afraid to ask God for fear of being rejected or being asked to receiving a gift that involves pain or suffering of some sort. You might be one one of them, but if you come a little closer to Him in your desire to love Him, you might find that rather than being an impediment, it has become a blessing.

Fullfillment

 

Moments after asking Saint Carlo Acutis to help update my windows 10 computer.

When we give ourselves to Jesus and Mary it is immediate and eternal. From that moment, whether our life continues for one second or for a hundred years, we are theirs if we ask for it, and belong to them. They may ask us whatever they like, and we ought act as if we are obligated because we are. Nevertheless, whether we were spiritually capable at that moment of delivering upon our promise or not, He respects us if we at least made the effort. 

This being the case, we should  hasten to offer ourselves to them, and reform our lives as if they had appeared to us and bound us tho themselves as to so many others who went on to be saints.

Let us not waste our lives, but engage all our capabilities to connect us to all the possibilities we have as a result of the sacred acts they make for us. 

This world is as fragile as a dove's egg, and in spite of human ignorance, it is subject to the sorrowful desecrations that befall the world, and tear up human lives like sheets of worthless paper.

Each such moment is dealt with by the Lord, and the promise of each life is saved from perdition for the day we will be united to them again after our sojourn here in life.

Cease your lamentations, for the moment of our salvation is at hand, and the moment our poor hearts will be united to theirs forever. Gone will be all sin and violence and the vileness of evil will be confined to a place from which there is no escape, while those He loves as His own son or daughter will be invited in to heaven to live with Him in peace and honor forever.

Do not weep for the humiliations you have suffered, or the losses brought about by the world, for God has kept all that was worthy in us in His Heart for the day He would be able ro restore them to us. Whatever was taken from us will be restored, and the good we did will be proclaimed in  honor before all the holy saints and angels above.

Wipe the tears from your eyes and from your heart and allow Him to fill you with His love.

A Feast

Can you drink the cup I will drink?
Welcome into my House.

Discipline has nothing to do with corporal punishment, and I do not advocate beating one's self. Some people do. That is their thing, but I think it is counterproductive. There are millions of people who suffer pain 24-7, 365 without let up and it is relentless. Some are very young; I know one case whose situation has been shared on the internet, who truly suffer enough for any ten men, and he is only eleven. In addition, he was put into an induced coma and it caused him to  lose his sight because of bleeding the coma caused. I am not a doctor, so I don't understand how a comatose condition should cause bleeding in the eye and rob a person of their vision.

I think it is infinitely better to calmy approach the Lord in humility asking forgiveness for sins of one's own self, and those of others. One might also fast in honor of the passion of Jesus, for the sake of those who most need His grace.

I am struck after all this time, by the compassion of Jesus toward sinners. We are in a condition in which we are spiritually blind, and see only the tiniest fraction of what Jesus suffers. Give Him cause to rejoice in us, and love Him as He wishes to be loved, even if we are aware we have little notion of what His suffering is. In it is included all our sufferings as well as the sufferings we are incaoable of seeing let alone endure.

Today is the feast day of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina who was the Capuchin friar upon whom Jesus imposed His Stigmata for fifty years; the stigmata disappeared after fifty years according to his own disclosure. He was attacked and several times physically injured by attacks of the evil one, and frequentlly assaulted spiritually as well. He was said to be able to read hearts and is responsible for many physical healings and miracles, in particular, capable of being in  more than one place at a time.

I pray for peace for all who are struggling with earthly matters and spiritual matters as well.  May He heal you and bring you relief of all that troubles you. May He dwell with you and make you dwell with Him in peace.

Turn It Off

 

Microsoft is in a ridiculous position. On the one hand it wants people to quit using windows 10 and use windows 11, but deliberately bars people from upgrading to windows 11 from windows 10. They state that hardware requirements and security as the reasons for not allowing an upgrade to windows 10. I have gotten to like windows 11 and find my self feeling very frustrated at being prevented by microsoft from upgrading.

Microsoft will never win any awards for security because of their sloppy practices when it comes to writing software to be used for security, or software to be used for other things. 

I even went to so far as to buy a refurbished system that was advertised as having windows 11 installed. That never happened. The system works, but it is stuck in windows 10 and can't be upgraded. I have tried some of the hacks people touted, but that didn't work. I wasted my money, but now they say that they will allow upgrading my system to install windows 11, onlly, if there is a button to click, it hasn't shown up. Frankly, it is very nasty indeed that they encourage people to tinker with the brains of the system to try to accomplish their purpose, because a mistake could brick the system insensible altogether.

So what use is microsoft or windows 11 if a person can't use what they  produce and they refuse to allow things to work? At one point I thought Linux might be an answer, and the temporary trial worked; I went from a windows environment to a Linux distribution, but the moment I wanted Linux to install permanently in place of windows, all hell broke loose and I even had to replace the hard drive. So Linux was not the answer. Apple has its own little own little kindgom, but membership in that realm is way to rich for my blood. I also have misgivings about how easy or difficult it might be to be born again as an Apple enthusiast, after some very unpleasant moments caused by bad upgrades and password snafus. I will never go through that again.

That doesn't leave much. But I am also aware of things looming beyond the horizon that might make doing things digitally very difficult, like power blackouts, massive earthquakes, disease epidemics and political catastrophes brought on by half-wit mental defective mouldering politicians and their nuclear bombs.

All my faith and trust in God are tested by other people and the things they do to other people to satisfy themselves. Why God doesn't give a hint at how we might turn things around without one or another of the above mentioned catastrophes slamminng down on us.

One is left wondering what will happen, why it was'nt averted or why God didn't step in and say "enough!" and bring the whole machine to a screeching halt and say what's on His Mind to set everything straight. The thing is, that could still happen without megatsunamis or nuclear warheads. I don't know how it would happen, or the consequences of an act of God falling on us in one preemptive moment. God's love nothwithstanding, He  insists on  justice for Himself. People who keep on trucking day after day without a change don't make things any easier on the rest.

The sun is coming up, it is bright  out and clear but the air is foul with a mixture of automobile engine exhaust and naturally  occurring wildfiire smoke lingering in the air.

I encourage everyone to sit down someplace quiet and be at peace long enough to get in touch with what's goin on inside themselves. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Clouds

 Clouds

I give thanks for dark and gloomy clouds for the way they reassure my soul and the way their bright light illuminates my soul.

If He can take care of my sad mood, surelly He is able to do all else that is necessary.

I give thanks for rainfall in the night's quiet which lifts up my soul.

A melody lifts me up, a blackbird's bright patches fluffing up when he sings reassures me when I am afraid.The bird is not afraid to sing, in spite of predators, giving away his hiding place. I will hide in His cloak and in His Heart I will take refuge and I will be safe, even if the nails of crucifixion explode within my wrists and feet. He bore all for me, shall I refuse Him anything?

Wingbeats

Not a single beat of his wings 

goes unnoticed by the Lord.

If it is necessary for you to change the way you live so that you are in solitude and silence, He will surely let you know. There are many ways to know; a way for each person on earth, so that there is great scope and variety, in accordance with the idea that there is never another you. You're it.

I found the thought of Nw Camaldoli intriguing and attractive, but it was not what God wanted, so that I do not live there today, and am not a member of that august community.

One should not be concerned with being unique. Each person is unrepeatable. So that having left behind the issue ot being unique is instantly resolved and you can get on to other more pressing things.

Do not worry about need. Each of us was born completely helpless and entirely dependant on other human beings for survival. Jesus told us in Scripture that we should not worry, that each day is sufficient to itself. Some, at this point, would wonder what's next, but that moment is taken care of by His Will.

So there are few things of concern still needful; prayer, dealing with solitude, responding to silence and solitude. These are full of enough urgency all by themselves. Haiving come and responded to the notion of joining a community or finding a place where one can truly be alone and live in silence, the moment is at hand when the stream of our prayers begins and we strive to keep it flowing, meaningfully and intensely. A person who thinks he can just plop down any old way in any old desert without preparation is nuts. He will discover that soon enough, if he is not prepared.

Eternity does not end, hence the necessity to be earnest in what one does in the presence of God. There is space enough in our time to respond to God, because He has built each day and moment until we are trained and ready for eternity. If we are sincerey, we will be prepared for eternity, and that care is wiped from  our consciousness. What remains is to be responsive to God, letting the stream of our prayers be as natural as our next breath.

There are enough people in need or in troubles of all sorts so that they are in jeopardy of losing their eternity because they are unaware of eternity or what it means. The world will try to take away our meaning so that our heading and our helm in life are unattended, not a good way to run a ship.

God will never cease calling us and longing for our presence, and if we love Him, we will be full of longing for Him. Let it not be hollow, empty, meaningless. How prescious the longing is that ties us to Himself. He will not let us fall from the cross to which He has fastened us, nor should we fear what the next moment brings, because we are attached to Him the way He is attached to the cross. Our hearts are attached to the Lord, so how do we become detached? by letting anything else occupy the space in our time and our awareness fostered by the Lord and trusting in Him. He cannot foul up the moment of our transition from our here and now that way the world can, and it abhors a steady man who trusts in God, and is dismayed that anything worldly might slip into oblivion as we meld into the Lord. Yet, do not be concerned. He knows our needs and the needs of those we pray for, and will bless us quietly for our prayers. If we love others more than ourselves, we cannot be lost because it always fulfills each need and leaves us satisfied and fulfilled as we will be in eternity.

We need noy be concerned for fancy clothes, rich foods or honors and recognitions, for there is nothing so valuable that we should forsake what God has forged, for somthing else. Do not forsake His Heart for any other, or any other person.

You need not worry about rules and regulations. The worldly are always fussing and quibbling over rules and regulations, but their concern is a waste of time better dedicated to the love of God. Do you think He knows if we love Him? Do you think He cannot draw us closer to Himself? Give time into His hands and He will see to it we satisfy His Heart.

Missing

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV9Rc7yOSj0&ab_channel=ASunnyAdventure

Our incomplete love is at fault for our inordinate longings. We are reluctant to admit how much someone means to us and what it  means when their presence is denied.

It is a shadow of the longing of all creation for unity with God, who made everything and orders all things in harmony, including us in His most lavish treats.

As much as we can miss a friend, He misses us infinitely more, and we do not always realize how great His love is until somehow He catches us in an idle moment and steals a bit of our heart, just enough to burn beyond enduring.

Union can catch us off guard, and reshape our life. The pain of our wounded heart longs to be whole again, but until we are ready to surrender all our defenses, so that we can feel the cross, we will waste most of our life not realizing what has happened to us or what is necessary to remedy the situation. To let it hurt as much as it wants to, and the Heart of Christ has finished binding us to Him and to the cross to become a fountain of grace and life to all who are near us.

See if it is so. Dare to sit still long enough, and let your distracted heart rest a bit until you are ready. 

If our dessication was not immensely worth it,
He would not bother with us at all. He is never content
to miss us and do without our company.

Contemplation

 

In transcendant prayer, words become a nuisance.

Contemplation is a gift of God, and blessed be the man who takes up prayer to encounter God in Himself. Lesser forms of prayer are no less desireable or meritorious, but prayerful living is not as common among the great numbers of persons.

To be given the gift of contemplative prayer is a blessing not that frequent, though those who have practised it have been swiftly swept up into God Himself to the wonder of the common observer.

It stands to reason, then, that for most persons, a fruitful prayer life is a great blessing as well, and the exuberance of joy expressed in pilgrimages and processions and decorations such as beautiful flowers are a means of expressing delight in the life and the Lord, every bit as much as contemplative ecstasies and other states of exaltation.

There is too, the injunction of the Lord that whoever is ashamed of Him, He is ashamed of them, and the lavishness of processions and services at church are a bold means to express love of a prayerful life in service to the Lord, to remind those who reject God that there are punishments for such behavior and blessings for life for those whose love of God is plainly demonstrated in a secular world. To get anyone to pray in public is a monumental task.Those involved in habitually encountering Jesus in contemplation are immediately engrossed in Him to their delight.

to divest our celebrations of God by foregoing processions, songs and vocal prayers as well as floral displays impoverishes our celebrations of God and dilutes our witness to the world. If some have taken advantage of the sentimentalities of persons by concetrating on the monetary gains to be had by a community celebrating a feast is obnoxious to the Lord, but we should reform our celebrations and not forbid them. 

Since contemplative prayer is a gift, it is not given widely among the congregation. When it is given, it is  meant to inform and instruct as well as to immerse a whole person in the experience of God as a consolation all His own. Often, the gift is given because a person has invested his entire self exclusively in God and desiring His presence not merely or solely so that one might be consoled but so that the Lord might be made known to all by the giving of and experience of Himself that rewards and demonstrates life perfected in His holiness.

Often God manifests Himself in a special way to someone as a demonstration of a service or special charism to exercise among the faithful where poverty and violence have been the common experience of life.

There are wealthy people in the world because there are the poor, and only the wealthy have the opportunity or means of alleviating the suffering of others. It is fitting therefore, that persons be raised up in the world who are gifted with the most intimate prayer to God so that they might console the unconsoled, the impoverished and those bereft of joy in its many forms.

In life there is misfortune, and many who profess only to make everyone they encoutner as miserable as possible. God has the right to snatch such miserable creatures out of their recreation, to turn them around and uplift them so they may lift the suffering out of their sorrows for the Lord's sake. We ought to give God thanks in all ways but most especially in our prayers for His providence, and if possible, by having processions that express every form of prayer and song and recital. To ban celebrations and demonstrations of solidarity with God is a mistake. Life for so many people is dreadfully tiresome and unenjoable. Anyone who exercises his ability to lift up others ought to be blessed for his love of God, and he should express his delight in Him in every way possible.

In order to pray it is necessary that one concentrate on the Lord; He then, if He so desires, can lift one up out of himself, and if one's appreciation and gratitude are sufficient, the delight given will transcend common life to enhance it with gratitude and the swelling of the feelings to more closely resemble those of Christ.

Adversaries

I am humbled because He forgives us.

Let us not forget that our adversaries may be cleverer than us, and more intelligent. That they can weaponize their cleverness ought to promote a desire to exceed their cleverness and that we might be able to use it for survival when the enemy is acting so as to destroy us, but might overlook something we already recognize..

If we are clever, we should also be wise. If we build a sword that is revolutionary in the context of military tactics, let us remember to build it with a steel that can cleave stone; if a sword is created from faulty iron, and we try to cut down an enemy with it, we may find the enemy cutting down our swords and killing us.

Let us not think we are superior to anyone else, for if our weaknesses are brought up before our eyes, we ought to own them and embrace them as if they contain some unseen merit so that we might succeed where others engage us to annihilate us.

We are sinners, and are subject to death; Forgiveness and healing of our weaknesses ought to prompt hummility in us and to remember that God is merciful and forgiving as well as healing what is broken in us. For if God acts to heal us, He demonstrates His superiority over us, and if we have embraced humility, He will respond to our moves with appreciation and love, and not let death overtake us.

Let us remember that we all are subject to death and our days are numered; there is only so much time to act as humbly as God Himself, for that is what He intends in extending His clemency to us.

Whatever offenses we acknowledge were born by us, let us remember God has forgiven us and not hold judgement over others.

Retribution belongs to God, and forgiveness is not held against us. Before condemning others, let us apologize for the wrongs that we have committed, and not foment wars to right supposed wrongs when everything we have thought and done can be deemed an injury inflicted on another. Sharing instead of greed will avoid a war, and a war averted is a great mercy which protects everyone from death and destruction so that good might be spread on earth that prospers everyone.

God views us according to forgiveness and mercy so that the most forgiving and most merciful are superior to those who are given to demonstrate miracles and spiritual prodigies.

Let us fulfill the promise that wars will cease, and a new heaven and earth will be created for the just to live in. We live in the universe we can scarcely see let alone undertand,, and we cannot grasp it until the old has passed away. We shall be stupified indeed if God has forgiven all sin but we are found committing the final sin before the old is erased by the new.

Let it be said that we busied ourselves working the works of peace and not of war, building rather than tearing down, building just peace and forgetting wars and killing so that we may forget each others' sins before God and making Him glad He was merciful to us when the first sin was committed, and endured our ignorance to Him in crucifying Him so there might be forgiveness and peace in the world.

Divisions

The light of a fire lights up the sky.

Neither Donald Trump nor anyone else knows a word that can bring peace; it is in God and is revealed not to liars and evildoers but to those who came close to God and were changed, as God changed Moses on the mountain.

Scheming and trickery will not bring peace, because true peace is not a human thing, but a divine one.

Pray that God should send a man to whom He has spoken the word that changes hearts and minds and delves into the hearts of people who do not know that they are chosen to be a tabernacle of peace.

They are few because very many cannot hear because of their worldly hearts, always seeking the divine but failing to see Him or hear Him or know Him. 

God wishes to uncover His children so they can be seen and come to know God. The land itself burns in the heat of drought, but it is not earthly water that He desires, but souls to sit listening in the silence for the holy word in the garden of God where He speaks to the holy in the silence.

You cannot find truth in worldly minds, but God can see and He can bring forth delights. Pray for peace and expect it to come from the light of God, not from men.